“Nice to see you too?”
“He’s a prince, Pike, show him some respect,” Callum says.
“Yeah this coming from herdy schmerdy bork bork over here,” I mutter under my breath. I look at Pike. “Look, I’m sorry to just drop in like this without any warning but I wanted to talk to Maggie. Face to face.”
“Well, I hate to break this to you but a little warning would have been nice.”
I frown. “Why, what’s going on?”
Pike looks at Callum. “You didn’t tell him.”
“Hey,” Callum says, “I get to have secrets too!”
“Tell me what? Where is she?”
“Maggie is in Sweden.”
The planet begins to tilt on its access. “What?” I say, my voice coming out in a hush. “Sweden?”
“She went for you. Suddenly decided she was wrong and couldn’t live without you or whatever and that was that. We drove her to the airport yesterday.”
“Oh my god,” I groan. I bring out my phone but I don’t see any texts from her or from anyone. “She would have texted me right?”
“She wanted to surprise you. Looks like you two both had the same idea. Been watching too many romantic comedies, maybe.”
I look at my phone again and then notice that the data isn’t on.
Helvete.
I toggle it onto airplane mode and back and this time a million texts come in.
One from Maggie saying she’s going to Sweden.
A bunch from Freddie, saying that Maggie is in Sweden and Nick has gone to get her and he doesn’t know if he should tell her where I am.
And then a few from my father. Wanting to know where I am, wanting to know why Maggie is at the palace and I’m not.
And then…
The worst text of them all.
My father saying that he went to the palace and had a long talk with Maggie.
He didn’t say anything else.
Fuck.
That is not good. For all I know he convinced her to leave and that she has no place in the royal family and now she’s on her way back here again.
I send Maggie a text: I’m in Tehachapi! In your kitchen! Don’t go anywhere, I’m coming back for you.
I wait a few minutes to see if she’ll get the message but then I realize with the time difference, it’s late there and she’s probably asleep.
If she’s even there.
“I can’t believe the both of you were in the air at the same time,” Pike muses.
“I can,” I say with a sigh. “This seems like the crazy type of shit that happens to us.”
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Pike asks. “I was just about to get started. The girls will be back soon.”
“Can you cook for us?” Callum asks me. “Pleeeeease?”
I shake my head. “Next time. I promise.”
“There won’t be a next time.” He pouts.
“There will be if Maggie agrees to marry me.” I eye them both. “You’re all okay with that idea still, right?”
God I hope so.
“Yes, d’uh,” Callum says with an exaggerated roll of his eyes.
Pike nods. “The idea has grown on me. Still can’t say if I would join you out there, I think I’m more of a sunshine and palm trees kind of boy at heart. But you have my blessing. You have all of our blessings.”
“Okay.” I get up out of my seat, leaning against the table, summoning strength to go through this travel shit all over again. “I guess I have a plane to catch.”
* * *
***
* * *
Jet lag is a bitch, as they say in America.
After criss-crossing numerous time zones in twenty-four hours, by the time I land back in Stockholm, I barely know what day it is, what time it is and who I am. All I do know is that I have to get to Haga Palace ASAP.
I have to propose to the woman of my dreams.
The future royal highness, future princess, future queen.
Of course being that my brain is so fried, I realize that I don’t have any rings on me. The ring I had chosen for Maggie is tucked away in a drawer in my room. Fuck it, I’ll just have to wing it.
Unless…
I tap Nick on the shoulder as he’s driving. We’re just minutes away from the estate.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a ring, do you?”
Nick shoots me a pensive look. “I have my wedding ring.”
“Can I borrow it?”
Nick’s face scrunches up. “Do you have to?”
“I’ll give it back, I promise.”
“I don’t know.”
“Nick. As the Crown Prince of Sweden, I command you to give me your wedding ring. As a subject of, uh, this royal…order…you must obey. Or face the consequences.”
I can tell Nick really wants to tell me to fuck off.
He sighs and then raises his left hand for me to pry the ring off. It takes a bit though. “When was the last time you took this off?” I ask him, grunting as I finally get it loose.
“I think my wife got it extra small so that I’d never lose it.”
“Or you got fat.”
“I think my wife got me fat so that I’d never lose it.”
“Fair enough.” I twist it around in my fingers. It’s tarnished and plain but it will do for now.
“If you lose it,” he warns me. “Then you have to deal with my wife. And you have to arrange for me and the girls to meet Harry Styles.”
“Done. Hey, now you want me to lose it, don’t you?”
He doesn’t say anything.
I stuff the ring in my pocket, then call Bodi on his cell.
“Viktor!’ he exclaims through the phone. “You’ll never guess who is here!”
“I know,” I tell him. “I’m almost there. I need your help in keeping Maggie away from the front windows.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
“For how long.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
“Okay but--“
I hang up.
Soon we’re pulling into the back of the house and I immediately grab the cook, Else, and Nick and tell them what to do.
I have no idea if it will turn out or not but after I talked to Magnus before I boarded the plane yesterday, he gave me the idea. Considering all of his knowledge of The Notebook, and now this, I’m starting to think he’s a true romantic at heart. Though lord help the woman who ends up with him.
With Nick running around the front lawn and doing the rough outline with a shovel, Else and I gather sticks and branches from the woodpile and then go about laying them on top of the outline. In theory, when Maggie looks out from the top windows, she should see giant words clearly spelled out on the snow.
Now, I know she knows I’m coming. I had texted her yesterday and though she didn’t text back, probably because what do you say other than, oh shit, how did that happen I made sure via Nick that she was at home.
I also called my father and though I didn’t ask what they talked about, I told him that I was coming home.
I also told him what I was going to do.
I was going to get down on one knee.
And I was going to ask Maggie to be my wife.
And if he had any objections to that, well then he didn’t have to give us his blessing, and he didn’t have to be here.
So far, he’s not here.
Which means what I think it does.
But I refuse to dwell on that right now. My main concern is Maggie.
Is she going to say yes?
Does she want to marry me?
Does she still love me?
I can’t assume any of those things just because she’s here. I’m going to have to see it all with my own eyes, looking into her heart and soul and seeing her truth, feeling her warmth in my hands. Just being near her will give me all the answers.
“I think we’re done, sir,” Else says, dusting off the snow from her coat.
I stare at the words. It’s impossible to read from here so I can only hope Maggie will see it from up there.
“I think it’s time,” Nick says to me with an impish smile.
Else claps her mittens together excitedly.
I go inside the palace.
“Maggie?” I call out into the foyer.
The doors to the study opens and Bodi strolls out, sweating profusely.
Am I hearing a fiddle?
“What were you doing in there?” I frown and then see Maggie coming up behind him, looking both shy at seeing me and confused by Bodi.
“I put on some music and demonstrated our traditional Swedish folk dancing,” Bodi says, breathing hard. “I’m a bit out of practice.”
I bite back a laugh. So this was Bodi’s plan to keep her away from the windows? Poor girl.
I nod at him my thank you and then look at Maggie.
“Hello.”
The sight of her is like a balm on every single wound. She soothes me, heals me, reveals me.
“Hi,” she says.
“Well I’m going to leave you alone,” Bodi says and staggers off to the kitchen. “I need some water.”
“It’s nice to see you here,” I tell her.
“It’s nice to be here,” she says.
Oh, I don’t want this to be awkward at all.
“Listen, I –“ I say at the same time she says, “Look, I’m—“
“I’m sorry,” we both blurt out at once.
“I’m sorry,” I say quickly, grabbing her, pulling her toward me until I know she’s in my hands. She’s here now, she’s solid and she’s real and I need her to be mine. “I am so sorry. I know I should have never…”
“No,” she says quickly. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You did everything right. I knew the risks coming here and bringing the kids and I did it anyway because I wanted a future with you. And somewhere along the line I got scared and I lost sight of that. I lost sight of why I came here in the first place.”
“Please, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I tell her, searching her eyes. “So don’t apologize to me either. You had to put the kids first.”